Individual users of mobile search are not alone. Mobile search volume has surpassed desktop search volume in the UK. This is according to Eileen Naughton, managing director and vice president for sales and operations at Google UK-Ireland. Naughton told an audience at London Tech Week during a 15th June presentation that over half of all online searches in the UK are carried out on mobile devices. Naughton also said that mobile searches are outstripping desktop searches for the UK in respect of views of YouTube videos.

Google has announced the imminent release of YouTube Gaming, a new app it has developed for gamers. The move puts Google directly into competition with Twitch, the well-known popular live streaming app.

Regular – and not so regular – users of Facebook know that the social media network favours those posts that they and their friends have liked, commented on and shared in their News Feed, but Facebook is taking things a step further by taking into account the amount of time spent looking at a post.

Google is not usually known for being publicity shy, but one recently added feature introduced by the search engine giant has certainly been flying under the radar, as such. The feature in question has not yet been given a formal name by Google, but it can be accurately described as delivering precise search results based on a user’s location. The company finally got round to offering a presentation on the amazingly accurate function during the SMX Paris search marketing event.

Apple used its WWDC event to announce a series of changes to Siri and search. Apple’s objective with these “proactive” capabilities is to improve the user experience on the iPhone. An underlying objective is to hopefully catch up with Google (Now) and Microsoft. Both of their “assistants” have become more sophisticated than Siri and have also expanded their uses.

Video production for online consumption has long had to take multiple platforms into account, and Snapchat is becoming increasingly important as a video hosting outlet. This development has taken place against the backdrop of Snapchat’s dynamic growth as a social media platform. Snapchat has recently been valued at an estimated $19 billion, and has around 100 million daily users, having been launched as recently as September 2011.

The deal with Google announced by Twitter has got a lot of people talking. Under the deal, advertisers can purchase ads on Twitter via the Doubleclick buying system developed by Google, with the result that Google displays real-time tweets as actual search results. The deal has led to gossip that Google is using the agreement as a kind of test-run to determine if acquiring Twitter would make sense. Merger talk was very evident at the Engage 2015 social media conference in Prague, held in May.

A panel discussion at the SMX Advanced search marketing conference on 2nd June reflected on Google’s Mobilegeddon mobile update six weeks on from its 21st April rollout and considered what comes next as the industry faces into a mobile-friendly future. The panellists were Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst; Mitul Gandhi, Chief Architect with seoClarity; and Laura Scott, Strategy Lead for RKG Merkle.

Has anybody noticed that Penguin has a tendency to run slowly? Well, Gary Illyes, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, has admitted as such, telling the SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle on 2nd June that the search engine giant is working on a process that will see Penguin update in real time. If this scenario does indeed unfold, the algorithm will be in receipt of data that is refreshed on a continuing basis. At present, data has to be refreshed manually in order to determine whether there have been any ranking changes for sites affected by Penguin.

Google is rolling out new products and new partnerships to help make the tracking of mobile app campaigns easier and more effective, according to the search engine giant’s senior director, Jason Titus. He was speaking during a livestream conducted as part of Google’s 2015 I/O conference, held in San Francisco on 28th and 29th May.